Beyond the bottom line …

I am hired as an expert in a consulting assignment to work with the business manager and help him improve his EBITDA and impact the bottom line.

While I start my data analysis and quickly identify key improvement themes that will help improve the operational efficiency, build strategies where the value enabling tasks can be digitized and move some of the processes  to low cost channels and effectively use the power of outsourcing and impact the margins there is much more one should do.

My conversation with a Sr. Vice President brought in a 360 degree transformation to the whole art and science of operational excellence. No doubt that the cost optimization drives, business efficiency projects and process excellence are the keys which all business houses have successfully deployed and tasted the results there are a hand full of organization which go beyond these initiatives and move towards employee ENGAGEMENT…. EMPOWERMENT … and EXECTUION …

During my HP days I had a chance to work with the best of the CXO’s and Directors, each one is a gem in the crown of the Sr. Management who was on a path less travelled to meet the goals set and demonstrated unclenching behavioural anchors and maintained composure during the most stressful days and the only and only point each one of them articulated clearly and echoed in every talk is a threefold model of Engagement… Empowerment… and Execution.

One of the directors of HP who did play a role of my mentor and coach for my tenure in HP made a point very clear… Execution is not a leadership trait, it’s a basic essential that is required in each and every employee hired in the organization, every employee should exactly know what the output he/she generates is. … WOW… a good learning… all the books I had read on execution talked more from a leadership end … here is something new I discovered … He went on adding and giving example on how execution can be seen in every walk of our life and every member of the society, the world is a well-oiled engine and everyone is able to deliver … your spouse prepares a bed tea and wakes you up is only because the milkman delivers the milk on time… that’s execution… she prepares the kids to school and drops them to the school bus… that’s execution… the school van picks up kids on time and drops them to school and brings them back home on time… that’s execution… open your eyes and see … you will see execution in every walk of life … this is a basic essential …

Why do we fail to execute if this is so basic trait…?

When I popped up this question to him he said… my friend.., you can successfully execute if you are empowered to… what your spouse can do… your maid cannot unless she is empowered… WOW.. now see the connection… execution is linked to empowerment…

Nonetheless, he went on to add… it’s not only empowerment … you may empower your maid to dress up your kids and ensure they reach the school bus at the gate and this may slip … it may not happen daily… or your will face issues here… now this is linked to Engagement…

How are you engaging with your maid and make her feel responsible and take the ownership…

My conversation went on and on with a lot of examples and real life situations that can be easily understood … I am convinced… and I still face a challenge keeping my team motivated enough and engaged …

Now there are a lot of factors that impact this concept in the corporate world… as we grow the leadership sessions, trainings and talks revolve more on understanding the finances and the financial ratios… the additions and subtractions… gains … profits and losses… etc… and in a five day leadership training there will be a couple of workshops for half a day on employee engagement … personal branding etc… I am not complaining … there are trainers who do stress at every point that you should keep people engaged and empowered but I have not seen it really happening at all levels…  

Real, tangible, quantitative data confirms that happy and engaged employees lead to greater profits and higher stock prices, a friend of mine used to work for NETAPP and this company has a very simple practice of engaging employee and empowering them with a reward program called as “CIO FOR A DAY” where the CIO goes to each and every employee after the annual results are posted and thanks them for the good work they have done. He carries real examples and appreciation emails and tells them how much it matters for him and the team.

People quit managers and not companies is a quote everyone is aware about and very less effort is put in to really build the human capital. It’s not only the leadership talks or shows that matter what really matters is have you touched everyone in the organization.  A CEO of a large company makes a very impressive speech … but this does not reach as a benefit the end employee who is just a few years of experience in the company and doing the real execution … may be testing, coding, building, designing etc… as you grow up the management ladder you are but nothing building strategies and seeing the plans come thru.

While you can be successful in engaging the employee… but I have not seen any behaviour demonstrating empowerment. Decision making can happen only if you are empowered, your spouse can take a decision to perform a task later or forgo to cut down the time to prepare the kids to reach the school van is your maid performing the same set of activities empowered to do so…

Empowerment can come only and only if you can willing to take the responsibility and are accountable for the actions, I have seen only in few occasions the Sr. Manager and AVPs although entitled hold back to sign off for various reasons and pass the buck on … is this a trait you have anchored into your behaviour right from your child days… I believe so… fall back on the families of people who you have seen making decisions… forget good or bad … but they make decisions and you can relate them roots into their childhood … culture they are brought up in or education…

Well… there is a long long way for the Indian corporate to go and understand how to really engage and empower which in turn improves execution that leads to customer satisfaction and repeat business or more business.

In principle and theory everyone agrees to but the very human nature that is filled with insecurities and commitments will fancy on titles like VP, AVP, Sr. Manager, GM, MD etc… and lacks the ability to engage and empower fails to execute and one fine day will stand at the bottom … and will continue to see the bottom-line number diminish ….

 

Don't find fault, find a remedy....

I am inspired from the quote “Don’t find a fault, find a remedy…” and past thirteen years working on various short term and long term consulting assignments I have found one thing in common … most of the enterprise solutions and process improvements programs often “fail” because corporate strategic objectives are misconstrued, or because processes and systems are not aligned with your business necessities and the fault finding starts. We need to move away from addressing the need and start understanding the want. The need is met and so is the business running, what is required is meeting the wants of the customer and that can be accomplished by understanding the strategic objective. Unless one sees the big picture all process improvements are penny wise pound foolish…. I have so far engaged with more than 40 – 50 consulting assigments with various customers both internal and external and all are focused on cost reduction, optimization, cycle time, efficiency resulting in operational excellence and EBITDA improvement as a central theme the biggest ever challenge I have successfully conquered is bringing business change at an organizational and individual level and shifting / transitioning individuals, teams and organizations from a current state to a desired future state such that the change made are fully aligned to the corporate strategy and business objectives.

My projects are usually slow compared to others but what I have discovered when I fall back is at least 60% of my changes are cemented so strong and have become the DNA of the organization which gives me immense satisfaction.  Often one will discover a situation where you are slipping on the budgets, on the targets, on the schedule and that’s the reality… may be the estimation has gone wrong or the gathering stakeholder commitment and involvement is delayed nonetheless it’s very very important that the customer alignment and the user community buy in is of at most priority.

Advising and partnering to provide the customer with an integrated end-to-end approach in a consulting mode looks easy the difficult part is the EXECUTION… here is where the metal is tested, often situation arises when you are standing alone and need to figure out a way to gather momentum of the user community to embrace the solution and the stakeholders start owning it.

Many a business units add new channels in response to customer demand, with inconsistent processes and disconnected views of the customer supported by individual back office systems and the lack of communication to the shared service functions raises the challenge in operating efficiently. Coupled with poor understanding the voice of the customer affects the business and the noise starts this is where most of the times I get involved and start the due diligence activity and backtrack to the origin to find out the root causes to resolve them…

It’s a RAT RACE out there and a rush to win the customer contract we often forget our fundamentals of communication and this is exactly where the chaos starts. Every individual is a leader in himself and the challenge is he/she ends up making decisions without involving the larger community and lands into issues mid-way during the execution, the margins start to look week and the pressure mounts on the EBITDA slipping to amber and then into red start showing signs of distress coupled with few more decision that impact the people involved … low morale … attrition… cost pressure… everything start looking terrible in a few weeks … alas… had you stepped out from the RAT RACE and looked at the big picture…

Well… cutting things short… fall back and check in your respective organizations if you have a strong communication tool which enables and connects the Sales Force with Delivery…  if you don’t have one and are still dependent on outlook start investing in a CRM and ensure this CRM is fully implemented and tracked such that your forecasting and pipeline info is reaching the right audience in the organization … else you will someday be  left alone and will have to stand alone… though you will not give up and ensure the projects are completed… but seamless execution needs strong communication and partnering to run as a well-oiled engine... instead of find faults one should learn lessons from the past and incorporate as a best practice to move on… J

Five Men Army of a Successful Leader

When I fall back and look at my thirteen year old career it’s filled with learning experiences, I have failed more than succeeded, took big risks and made enough blunders and learnt a lot from them. Looking back, I realize that I could have changed my approach and pressed on in my efforts to take one more step forward and made it happen… many instances and assignments it’s the last last last minute that I backed out and there was always someone who picked up this as an opportunity and finished it coming out in bright colours…

I could have done the tasks and projects far better had I got the five men army way early in my career… nonetheless better late than never.  My mentor always insisted on a quote that says “Leadership is not a designation…it’s a position earned” unless you see a rough sea you will not be a good sailor. Success is short lived and forgotten but the failures remain long enough with you and these learning experiences is what the industry is looking to hire you for so that you will not make the same mistake again …

Almost 8 years down the line of my career I had a breakthrough after earning the trust of my five men army and believe everyone plays a very vital role in any assignment I am leading …

My five men army consist of …

a.      Coach…

b.      Mentor…

c.       Black Shadow …

d.      White Angle …

e.      and above all Myself….

Each of them has a designated role to play and they help me as a captain to walk up to my stakeholders and give them the taste of success they have hired me for…

Coach: A coach for me is one who will bring in the discipline in me, will always guide me and bring me back on track. He will make the necessary project plans, track the progress, question me if things are not falling in place, help me see the risks early and also help me come up with a risk mitigation plan. He is the most practical personality who is experienced and knows things inside out

Mentor: While there is a coach doing all things in practice, I have a Mentor who will help me understand the choices to make. She motivates me, inspires me with examples and case studies. She is always there when I need her, she is not a subject matter expert but she is the one who listens to me patiently and helps me discover what I already know. She never suggests me unlike a coach but helps me with all the necessary tools and tips to overcome the hurdles I am facing and prepares me for the success.

Black Shadow: While the coach and mentor play their roles in making things happen and support me physically and emotionally, my best friend is the Black Shadow. I learnt it the Hardaway, not everyone is comfortable listening to a feedback, but she is the one who tell me at every step why I will not succeed, why the things I am putting across will not work, her role is to crib, sulk and give me all the negatives and put across many reasons why things will fail.

White Angel: My most dearest is white angle, he is one who is the exact opposite to the Black shadow, he comes up and tells me every reason why I should try out and experiment with the idea I have. He is the one who looks at the inputs of the Black shadow and works with the coach and strengthens the plans to overcome the risks. A white angle should be innovative, think out of box and be a continuous energy of ideas bubbling to counter the black shadow

Myself: While I have four pillars the army is completed only by me, I am the one who is the final decision maker, I am accountable for my actions, I am responsible for the things I do, I am the cornerstone of success of failure, I may ignore to all the above and follow my gut, I may take suggestion from all and do exactly what is required… I am the master of my destiny. I write the success story or I choose to be in the books of history… and with me come the five men army.

I recently completed a project adding approx. USD 13 million to the bottom line and now switching to pick up a next big task to improve the revenue by at least 15 % for the year FY 14-15. This model has worked for me and now is a part of my team…

The first time I proposed this to my SVP, he laughed at me and told I have hired you and believe all these four should be a part of your quality / personality. Over a period of time after a few sessions he now strongly believes that the very human nature will get into conflict if the expectation is to have a personality dwell all the above four pillars.

I believe it’s worth investing in the above four for a successful business unit looking for a long term sustaining result and grow at the rate of at least 15% – 20% CAGR … thus make an impact … J

Challenge yourself as a leader

Thirteen years in the corporate world and finally a day came where I understand what it means to reach the pinnacle of achievement … you succeed so far beyond anyone’s wildest dreams that makes you THE man and because of you the entire team is appreciated…

 My GE days were filled with leadership experiences that helped me build resilience and maintain composure during tough times… and as I moved on there was an opportunity came knocking to my door … two Mid Cap giant companies merging together to be among the top 5 in the India IT play and I am responsible to spin success at the process side driving operational excellence and building growth strategies, using principles of lean and six sigma to eliminate waste and make the integration smooth.

As I moved out form the comfort zone of the GE Leadership and the GE Culture into a company that is acquired a bigger organization than itself and going thru a churn and restructuring at the top there was reluctance in employees and seemed though they have immediately got defensive and resist the idea of change.

What was so easy for me in the GE Days looked like a herculean task to carry the wave along to accomplish the set goal and help people overcome the perceived threats and get them away from the assumptions and gossips into reality. Loss of status, delays in pay hikes coupled with surprise factors of the policy changes added fuel to fire for the role I was playing.

This situation was testing my resilience and tenacity, which is obviously essential in a change management role and experienced the first time in reality compared to the GE days where such circumstances were only discussed in the training sessions.

This was the best experience of my career where in practice I have situation at hand where an adversity is presenting me an opportunity and instead of pressing a panic button hold on to the composure not letting the emotions get in the way and keeping a positive attitude handle the situation. One of the biggest learning out of this entire episode strengthened my belief … to be a good leader you need no rocket science … Communication and Faith are the only two qualities that are quite sufficient to emerge out of any situation…

Its few months now… my project was signed off yesterday with an annualized benefit of $ 3.46 Million to the organization …

Moving out of GE was a tough decision and I wanted to test my waters out there in the market and see what I am capable of.  Many a times working in a big organization and big MNC brand helps one maneuver thru the hurdles very easily… try it else were and challenge yourself as a leader  …!